PORTRAITS OF HARLEM

‘FREE ANGELA (AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS)’ / A DOCUMENTARY BY SHOLA LYNCH

‘Free Angela and all Political Prisoners’ is a documentary film written and directed by Shola Lynch. Released on April 5th, 2013, the movie chronicles the life of young college professor Angela Davis, and how her social activism implicates her in a botched kidnapping attempt that ends with a shootout,four dead, and her name on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. 

In this essential new feature documentary, legendary radical activist Angela Davis speaks for the first time about her 1970s imprisonment as a terrorist and conspirator, which became a flashpoint in the black liberation struggle and turned her into a revolutionary icon.

Few American lives encapsulate the tumult and triumph of the civil rights movement as much as that of author, educator and radical activist Angela Davis. Her wide range of admirers extends to include Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. A professor at UCLA, an open member of the Communist Party and an associate of the Black Panthers, Davis possessed an incendiary cocktail of attributes that made her the establishment's worst nightmare: not only was she educated, fiercely intelligent and fearlessly outspoken, she was also a socialist, an African-American and a woman. It's an understatement to say that not everyone in the U.S. was ready for Angela Davis — and some in fact did their utmost to put her behind bars forever. Free Angela & All Political Prisoners is the gripping story of how Davis became an international icon of social revolution and progressive politics. Built around new interviews with Davis, the film recounts her Alabama upbringing, her studies in the U.S. and Europe, and the start of her academic career in the philosophy department at UCLA, where she quickly drew fire for her membership in the CP — which then-governor Ronald Reagan publicly labelled a "provocation." (Reagan would later amend this, claiming that what really irked him was Davis' "unprofessionalism.") A campaign began to have Davis banned from teaching anywhere in the state. She began receiving death threats, which led her to purchase her first firearm. But Davis' problems had only just begun: in 1970, she was charged with conspiracy in kidnapping and murder following Jonathan Jackson's dramatic daylight abduction of Judge Harold Haley from the Marin County courthouse, which ended with Jackson, Haley, and two others dead in a shootout with police. Chronicling Davis' time in hiding, her eventual arrest and highly publicized trial via archival footage and her own words, this captivating documentary has all the fascination of a crime thriller and a courtroom drama, while touching on contentious issues around racial prejudice, gun control and freedom of speech.

Free Angela & All Political Prisoners was nominated for a “Grierson Award“ at the 2012 London Film Festival, a “WFCC Award” for Best Documentary by or About Women at the 2013 Women Film Critics Circle Awards, a “Video Source Award” in 2013 by the International Documentary Association, a “Black Reel Award” in 2014 for Outstanding Documentary,, and took home the prize for “Outstanding Documentary - Theatrical” at the 2014 Image Awards.

EASTER SUNDAY IN HARLEM, NYC  / THROUGH THE DECADES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANA ROSS / ‘TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING’ 1973

"Touch Me in the Morning" is a popular song recorded by Diana Ross on the Motown label, the lead single from the 1973 album of the same name. The song became her second solo No. 1 single (and 14th over her career) on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was conceived by then-unproven songwriter and producer Michael Masser. He had been recruited by Motown CEO Berry Gordyand A&R chief Suzanne de Passe. Masser teamed up with the proven ballad lyricist Ron Miller to write it.

According to Masser, in a video documentary about Ross, she "always tried to push hard to get the vocals right for this particular song", calling it a "draining experience" that resulted in several near-emotional breakdowns when she wasn't up to her abilities. It was recorded in the early morning hours, as was her custom after she began raising her children. In a Barbara Walters Mother's Day interview special, her second-oldest daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross, said Diana would put them to bed and record all night, in order to wake her children and send them to school the next morning.

Motown released the song as a single and it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, becoming her longest-charting record until 1980, remaining on the chart for 21 weeks. It also spent a week at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart, her first No. 1 on that chart. Sherlie Matthews, Clydie King and Venetta Fields sang background vocals.

‘ART IS...” BY LORRAINE O GRADY / AFRICAN-AMERICAN DAY PARADE IN HARLEM, 1983

Lorraine O’Grady is an artist and critic whose installations, performances, and texts address issues of diaspora, hybridity, and black female subjectivity. The New York Times in 2006 called her “one of the most interesting American conceptual artists around.” And in 2007 her landmark performance, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, was made one of the entry points to WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the first major museum exhibition of this groundbreaking art movement. Since then, her career has expanded exponentially with inclusions in such significant group shows as the Whitney Biennial (2010), the Paris Triennale (2012), This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s (MCA Chicago, 2012), Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (CAM Houston, 2012), and En Mas’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean (CAC New Orleans, 2015); and with acquisitions by the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, and the Art institute of Chicago, IL, among many others.

Born in Boston in 1934 to West Indian parents, O’Grady came to art late, not making her first public art work until 1980. After majoring in economics and literature, she had several careers: as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. government, a successful literary and commercial translator, even a rock critic. Ultimately, her broad background contributed to a distanced and critical view of the art world when she entered it and to an unusually eclectic attitude toward art-making. In O’Grady’s work, the idea tends to come first, and then a medium is employed to best execute it. Although its intellectual content is rigorous and political, the work is generally marked by unapologetic beauty and elegance.

Over the course of more than three decades, artist and cultural critic Lorraine O’Grady has won acclaim for her installations, performances and texts addressing the subjects of diaspora, hybridity and black female subjectivity. Born in Boston in 1934 and trained at Wellesley College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as an economist, literary critic and fiction writer, O’Grady had careers as a U.S. government intelligence analyst, a translator and a rock music critic before turning her attention to the art world in 1980.

In her landmark performance Art Is…, O’Grady entered her own float in the September 1983 African-American Day Parade, riding up Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) with fifteen collaborators dressed in white. Displayed on top of the float was an enormous, ornate gilded frame, while the words “Art Is…” were emblazoned on the float’s decorative skirt. At various points along the route, O’Grady and her collaborators jumped off the float and held up empty, gilded picture frames, inviting people to pose in them. The joyful responses turned parade onlookers into participants, affirmed the readiness of Harlem’s residents to see themselves as works of art, and created an irreplaceable record of the people and places of Harlem some thirty years ago. These color slides were taken by various people who witnessed the performance, and were later collected by O’Grady to compose the series. The forty images on view capture the energy and spirit of the original performance.

‘GIVE US A POEM’ BY GLENN LIGON AT THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM / FREE ADMISSION MARCH 24TH 

A part of the permanent collection at the The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, “Give us a Poem,” is a work by Glenn Ligon. It depicts a two-word poem, "ME WE," recited by legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, when he was asked for a poem after he gave a speech at Harvard University. 

The Museum is located at 144 West 125th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue. It is as an American contemporary art museum, devoted to the work of African-Americans artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum's mission is to collect, preserve and interpret the art of African-Americans and the African diaspora. 

Founded in 1968, The Studio Museum was the first such museum in the United States. Its scope includes exhibitions, artists-in-residence programs, educational and public programming, a permanent collection, as well as archival and research facilities. 

In celebration of the Spring 2016 exhibitions, Museum admission will be FREE on Thursday, March 24 from 5–9pm. Go check it out! I certainly will. 

’WHAT’S GOING ON’ BY MARVIN GAYE  (LIVE FROM WHAT’S HAPPENING BROTHER, 1971)

"What's Going On" is a song by American soul musician and recording artist Marvin Gaye. It is title track on his the eleventh studio album of the same name, released in May 21, 1971, on the Motown subsidiary Tamia. Originally inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, the song was composed by Benson, Al Cleveland and Gaye and produced by Gaye himself. The song, which focused on major seventh and minor seventh chords, and was oriented in sounds by jazz, gospel and classical music orchestration, was mainly viewed as a meditation on the troubles and problems of the world, proving to be a timely and relatable release, and marked Gaye's departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. Later topping the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks and crossing over to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, it would sell over two million copies, becoming Gaye's second-most successful Motown song to date.

The song topped Detroit's Metro Times list of the 100 Greatest Detroit Songs of All Time, and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the fourth-greatest song of all time; in its updated 2011 list, the song remained at that position. It is included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, along with two other songs by the singer. It was also listed at number fourteen on VH-1's 100 Greatest Rock Songs.

The song's inspiration came from Renaldo "Obie" Benson, a member of the Motown vocal group the Four Tops, after he and the group's tour bus arrived at Berkeley on May 15, 1969. While there, Benson witnessed police brutality and violence in the city's People's Park during a protest held by anti-war activists in what was hailed later as "Bloody Thursday". Upset by the situation, Benson said to author Ben Edmonds that as he saw this, he asked, "'What is happening here?' One question led to another. Why are they sending kids so far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own children in the streets?"

Upset, he discussed what he witnessed to friend and songwriter Al Cleveland, who in turn wrote and composed a song to reflect Benson's concerns. Benson wanted to give the song to his group but the other Four Tops turned down the request. "My partners told me it was a protest song", Benson said later, "I said 'no man, it's a love song, about love and understanding. I'm not protesting, I want to know what's going on.'" In 1970, Benson presented the untitled song to Marvin Gaye, who added a new melody and revised the song to his liking, adding in his own lyrics. Benson later said Gaye tweaked and enriched the song, "added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem like a story than a song... we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it. Gaye titled it "What's Going On". When Gaye initially thought the song's moody feel would be appropriate to be recorded by The Originals, Benson convinced Gaye to record it as his own song.

Lyrics

PORTRAIT OF BILLIE HOLIDAY / LADY SINGS THE BLUES

Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education. While there were other jazz singers with equal talent, Billie Holiday had a voice that captured the attention of her audience.

After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs around Harlem. After being heard by producer John Hammond, who commended her voice, Holiday was signed to Brunswick Records in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which would later become a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday booked mainstream success with labels such as Columbia Records and Decca Records. By the late 1940s, however, Holiday was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, Holiday performed a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. However, due to her drug and alcohol problems, her reputation deteriorated.

Though she was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall, Holiday's bad health, coupled with a string of abusive relationships and ongoing drug and alcohol abuse, caused her voice to wither. Her final recordings were met with mixed reaction to her damaged voice, but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Holiday died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959. A posthumous album, Last Recordings, was released following her death.

Much of Holiday's material has been re-released since her death, and she is considered a legendary performer with an ongoing influence on American music. Holiday is the recipient of four Grammy awards, all of them posthumous awards for Best Historical Album. Furthermore, Holiday herself was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film centered on Holiday's life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972. 

Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in “Lady Sings the Blues,” 1972

"Black Is the Color (of My True Love's Hair)" is a traditional folk song first known in the Appalachian Mountains region of the United States in 1915, but most probably originating from Scotland, as attributed to the reference to the Clyde in the song's lyrics. The musicologist Alan Lomax supported this Scottish origin, saying that the song was an American "re-make of British materials."

Many different versions of this song exist, some addressed to females and others addressed to males, as well as other differences. Perhaps most recognized is Nina Simone’s version, who made it part of her standard repertoire, revitalizing the song's popularity when she recorded it for the live album, Nina Simone at Town Hall at The Town Hall, New York, on September, 15, 1959. An up-tempo lounge version was remixed in 2009 by Jaffa. 

Lyrics

Black is the color of my true love's hair His face so soft and wondrous fair The purest eyes And the strongest hands I love the ground on where he stands I love the ground on where he stands

Black is the color of my true love's hair Of my true love's hair Of my true love's hair

Oh I love my lover And well he knows Yes, I love the ground on where he goes And still I hope That the time will come When he and I will be as one When he and I will be as one

Famous for her first novel I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Dr. Maya Angelou has also written volumes of poetry. “Harlem Hopscotch” was first published in 1969. On the surface it seems like a simple children’s rhyme. However, upon a careful reading, it is clearly a commentary on the plight of African Americans as members of a society that oppresses and excludes them. With deceptively simple language, Angelou explores the ideas of poverty, race relations, and self perception. “Harlem Hopscotch” creates a reality that is both external and internal, and is a lesson in reading between the lines. 

Harlem Hopscotch

One foot down, then hop! It’s hot.   Good things for the ones that’s got. Another jump, now to the left.   Everybody for hisself. In the air, now both feet down.   Since you black, don’t stick around. Food is gone, the rent is due,   Curse and cry and then jump two. All the people out of work,   Hold for three, then twist and jerk. Cross the line, they count you out.   That’s what hopping’s all about. Both feet flat, the game is done.   They think I lost. I think I won.

The official music video for Maya Angelou’s “Harlem Hopscotch.” Dr. Angelou’s inspiring song is featured on the newly released album “Caged Bird Songs,” produced by RoccStar and Shawn Rivera of the R&B vocal pop group Az Yet. The song is about encouraging everyone, especially young people to persevere through life despite any obstacles! The game of hopscotch is symbolic of the difficulties of life and the obstacles that some face, whether they be wealthy or poor. The music video was directed by and features choreography from Emmy award-winning duo Tabitha and Napoleon Dumo, a/k/a NappyTabs, best known for their work on the hit television series “So You Think You Can Dance.” 

Maya Angelou, "Harlem Hopscotch" from Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie: Poems by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1971 by Maya Angelou.  Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Louis J. Delsarte (born September 1, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York) is an African-American artist known for what has sometimes been called his "illusionistic" style. He is a painter, muralist, printmaker, and illustrator. 

When Delsarte was growing up, he was surrounded by music including jazz, opera, musicals, and the blues. From this experience, as well as from his knowledge of African history and culture, he has drawn much of the inspiration for his art. Delsarte is now a professor of Fine Arts at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia where he resides. For the past 13 years his work has been exhibited around the United States.

Delsarte has been commissioned to create several monumental public murals. "Spirit of Harlem" was completed in 2005. The 30 ft X 11 ft glass mosaic was assembled in Munich, Germany, and is located at North Fork Bank on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City.

Brazilian Passinho Dancers posing and performing in front of a mosaic mural by Louis Delsarte in Harlem in New York, NY - Photo by Karin du Maire 

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his soft, baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres, becoming a major force in popular music for three decades. Cole was one of the first African Americans to host a national television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death from lung cancer in February 1965.

"Unforgettable" is a popular song written by Irving Gordon. The song's original working title was "Uncomparable". The music publishing company asked Gordon to change it to "Unforgettable". The song was published in 1951.

The most popular version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951, with an arrangement written by Nelson Riddle. A non-orchestrated version of the song recorded in 1952 is featured as a bonus track on the CD reissue of 1955's completely instrumental (save the bonus material) Penthouse Serenade. Cole recorded the tune anew in 1961, in a stereo version of the Riddle arrangement, for the album The Nat King Cole Story.

Lyrics

Currently on view on 116th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, NYC, Before I Die is the brain-child of Taiwanese-American artist, Candy Chang.​ Her community focused work inspires participation by everyday residents throughout neighborhoods across the world. 

Before I Die is a global art project that invites people to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space. This project was started by Candy Chang on an abandoned house in New Orleans.

After losing someone she loved, artist Candy Chang painted the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans with chalkboard paint and stenciled the sentence, “Before I die I want to _____.” Within a day of the wall’s completion, it was covered in colorful chalk dreams as neighbors stopped and reflected on their lives. Since then, more than 1,000 Before I Die walls have been created in over 70 countries and stenciled in over 35 languages by passionate people all over the world. 

If you are interested in creating a wall, please contact us first. Once you are approved, you can find resources on this page. Also read the FAQ to learn more about the process. We have discontinued selling the toolkit. However, you can purchase all the toolkit items directly from the manufacturers—we included links in the What You’ll Need section below. We also created a folder of free resources you can download here. It includes a step-by-step guide, a checklist of materials, and helpful examples (also shown below), as well as files of the stencils if you’d like to create your own or edit them for another language.

Learn more about how to create a wall here.  

A full-color hardcover book is also available for purchase. It is an inspiring celebration of these public walls and the stories behind them. Filled with hope, fear, humor, and heartbreak, Before I Die presents an intimate portrait of the dreams within our communities and a chance to ponder life’s ultimate question with the people around us. The Before I Die book is a recipient of a 2014 American Library Association award and Publishers Weekly calls it, “a powerful and valuable reminder that life is for the living, and it’s never too late, or too early, to join the party.” 

Before I Die... “The Book” can be purchased here

"Living for the City" is a 1973 single by Stevie Wonder from his Innervisions album. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 105 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming. It was one of the first soul music songs to deal explicitly with systemic racism and to use everyday sounds of the street like traffic, voices and sirens which were combined with the music recorded in the studio

Lyrics

A boy is born in hard time Mississippi Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty His parents give him love and affection To keep him strong moving in the right direction Living just enough, just enough for the city

His father works some days for fourteen hours And you can bet he barely makes a dollar His mother goes to scrub the floors for many And you'd best believe she hardly gets a penny Living just enough, just enough for the city yeah

His sister's black but she is sho 'nuff pretty Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy To walk to school she's got to get up early Her clothes are old but never are they dirty Living just enough, just enough for the city

Her brother's smart he's got more sense than many His patience's long but soon he won't have any To find a job is like a haystack needle 'Cause where he lives they don't use colored people Living just enough, just enough for the city

Living just enough for the city

His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty He spends his life walking the streets of New York City He's almost dead from breathing in air pollution He tried to vote but to him there's no solution

Living just enough, just enough for the city yeah, yeah, yeah!

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow This place is cruel no where could be much colder If we don't change the world will soon be over

"Maria Maria" is a song by Santana featuring The Product G&B. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 8, 2000, and stayed there for ten weeks. At the 2000 Grammy Awards, the song won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. 

In 2008, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Hot 100 chart, Billboard compiled its list of the top 100 songs since the inception of the chart in various categories. "Maria Maria" came in at No. 96 on the list of the Billboard All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs, and No. 2 on the list of Top Billboard Hot 100 Latin Songs of All Time. Later, it was named the 14th most successful song from 2000 to 2009, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.

"Maria Maria" (feat. The Product G&B) Maria Maria She reminds me of a west side story Growing up in Spanish Harlem She's living the life just like a movie star Maria Maria She fell in love in East L.A. To the sounds of the guitar, yeah, yeah Played by Carlos Santana Stop the looting, stop the shooting Pick pocking on the corner See as the rich is getting richer The poor is getting poorer Se mira Maria on the corner Thinking of ways to make it better In my mailbox there's an eviction letter Somebody just said see you later Ahora vengo mama chola mama chola Ahora vengo mama chola Ahora vengo mama chola mama chola Ahora vengo mama chola I said a la favella los colores The streets are getting hotter There is no water to put out the fire Mi canto la esperanza Se mira Maria on the corner Thinking of ways to make it better Then I looked up in the sky Hoping of days of paradise Ahora vengo mama chola mama chola Ahora vengo mama chola Maria you know you're my lover When the wind blows I can feel you Through the weather and even when we're apart It feels like we're together